Some shops are more skateboard, than longboard, orientated and don’t stock much longboard parts. Noting that some skateboard and longboard parts are interchangeable.

There are a lot of good European shops, with good service, who stock more of the beautiful wooden German and Austrian made boards that are harder to get from UK shops. All speak English and shipping is free.

Apologies to anyone I have missed off, especially if you have helped at some time – just let me know and I will add you.

To see a list of interesting gear that has caught my eye, use this search: The Gear I Like

EU Manufacturers & Sellers – Electric

The following is a list of suppliers and manufacturers of e-boards and e-board kits available in Europe, that I know of – meaning they can be bought within Europe without import taxes and have support, so issues can be fixed without needing to send back to China or the USA.

Note: there are so many new companies now setting up, that I can easily have missed someone. Equally, right now, many of these start-ups go bust within months, so buy carefully. Please let me know if I have missed someone or someone is no longer in business.

Personal Comment

Just my personal view on buying an e-board currently in the UK. Right now, we are still a little bit limited for quality options. Given, I have customer service and ease of fixing problems at the top of my requirements list, I would be happy to buy from only a few of the above list.

Boosted Boards are now sold both in the UK, via Selfridges, and direct with import taxes included in the normal price. Plus apparently there is now official support in Amsterdam via Sick Boards, but this has to be confirmed. Sick Boards are certainly selling Boosted parts. The Inboard M1 is being sold via a few European retailers, but it is unclear if it includes local support. Evolve, although seem to be sufferng with a lot of ongoing relability issues, continue to have a strong European presence retailing and supporting in the EU.

I have not been able to clarify the position with the Australian, and king of 4-wheel off-road-skates Baja Boards; apparently, it is being sold directly in the EU now. This is the same for the equally superb at off-road, OneWheel; there are a few EU retailers, but it is unclear if they are also supporting.

Of the European makers/assemblers that I know, I would happily buy from Unik Boards, Trampa Board, Mellow, Trampa, and SlickRev. The Eskating.eu board looks really nice, but I have not seen one to try it; same for the Polish companies Majestic and Tesla Board, the stylish little Bolt Board and the Spanish company Ride Unlimited.

Of the Chinese sold boards, the well regarded Meepo, Backfire and Wowgo boards are now shipping from a European warehouse and no longer incur import duty, but support will still be from China. For me, however, this is less of an issue than most direct from China boards as you can obtain individual components and fix most things yourself. Koowheel I think now have a distributor in the UK (to confirm?). Teamgee, of which we have two (H6 and H3), are currently only shipping directly from China; as are Ownboard,Verreal and DIYEboard. The Landwheel and Onan units are available via new European distributors, but it is unclear if this includes support. Finally, although we can now buy Lou Board in the UK, their reputation in the community is so dreadful (right at the top of the horror stories) that until it turns around, personally, I would not buy one.

A few companies like the well regarded Metroboard, Riptide, Arc Board and Predator Boards sadly don’t yet retail or support in the EU (again please correct me if I am wrong – I would especially like to get my hands on one of the new gear-drive Arc Boards or the Predator).

The rest of the market personally I would hold off on right now until they are more established and can show they will be still around in a few years to come, including absolutely everything Crowdsourcing and all the horde of cheap direct-from-China clones.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what you want; if you want that unique only from Australia, USA or China, go for it – but just remember, ALL e-boards break, and we ALL break them, at some point… then what?.